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Apocalypse Eclipse Session 12
The twelth session of Apocalypse Eclipse Preceeded by Apocalypse Eclipse Session 11 Flashing back; Bane has just escaped from the exarchs of Gruumsh and is resting aboard the Killer's Killer. In his sleep he dreams of Cathonia who brings a message of caution from the Raven Queen. The goddess does not want Bane to travel back in time before the missing souls can be first located. Doing so could alter fate in dangerous ways. Cathonia blesses Bane with an invocation from the Raven Queen in order that he can accomplish his task more swiftly, and with that he wakes up. Flashing back; Nehem awakens in an extremely bright, white-sand desert and as he stands up he sees a fifty foot tall stone creature with magical runes along its arms towering over him. Nehem realizes he is standing before an aspect of Buragan. The aspect tells Nehem that Buragan is in counsel with the other Gods, who are discussing going to war with the Primordials due to the obliteration of Istria. The aspect commands Nehem to discover how Allabar was able to traverse space and destroy the sun, Chende, and to bring holy justice against aberrants and elementals alike. The aspect smashes the Deva into the sand, returning him to his mission on Chernoggar. Flashing back; Claudiu awakens to find himself as a soulform in the city of Gloomwrought at the Shattered Isles. Claudiu spots Deliverer, who is climbing down the side of a building, and delivers a message from Lady Sanguine. She desires that Claudiu brings war against the Primordials, and hints at their shared devotion to Vecna. She also desires that the vampire travel to the remnant of Istria and oppose the demonic infestation taking hold there, specifically the threat posed by Yeenoghu. As Deliverer returns Claudiu to life, he leaves him with the challenge to "see if we can do better". Flashing back; Darrak feels his soul being drawn towards the Shadowfell, but then he feels it move sideways towards the City of Brass, where his soulform appears, surrounded by hundreds of other souls. Asking the others what happened, a dead drow mentions that although confused why they are in the Elemental Chaos, all the deceased are certain that they died after the destruction of Istria. As he ponders the strangeness of the situation, Darrak discovers that he is trapped within the room. Suddenly, a large, black portal opens in the room and begins to suck all of the soulforms into it. Just as the dwarf is about to be engulfed by the blackness, his soul is returned to his body as he returns to life aboard the Killer's Killer. Flashing forward; Blindfest rests aboard the Killer's Killer after having defeated some of Gruumsh's exarchs, and then decide to enter Mihajla's tent. They find themselves in an extradimensional space facing a walkway leading to a crystal orb. On each side of the walkway are three sets of stairs leading to different parts of the tent. Investigating the magic of the orb, they are able to discern that a creature that raises it with an ungloved hand will find themselves somewhere else in the tent. The party decides to investigate the stairs before using the orb in any particular way. They encounter numerous rooms, such as a zoo filled with all assortment of beasts, an staggeringly enormous room filled with a mind-boggling quantity of pillows, a trophy room of animal heads, and many other strange and magical sights. They also encounter a minotaur, who calls himself Kogrion, who lost a bet with Mihajla and was turned into a golden statue as a result. He promises Blindfest his valuable axe if they can assist him. During their exploration of the tent, the heroes also discover a hedge maze in one of the rooms, and Claudiu takes the form of a bat to fly over the hedges to see what lies in it more easily. He spots two humanoid creatures wandering the maze and the party decides to try and find them. They encounter the two individuals and find that they had also lost bets with Mihajla. They were also charmed by the djinn to not be able to see the exit to the maze. They are lead out by Blindfest and they all make their way to the enchanted orb in the entranceway. During their wandering of the tent, the adventurers learned that one must raise the orb with a gloved hand to proceed to Mihajla's current location. Satisfied with their search of Mihajla's outer rooms, Blindfest raises the orb together and are quickly transported to Mihajla's inner sanctum. The other two adventurers with them immediately charge Mihajla out of rage at their imprisonment, but he teleports them away with a simple wave of his hand. Seeing this Blindfest decides to talk to Mihajla before attacking. As the conversation progresses, they quickly realize he was not actually part of the planning of the destruction of Istria and rather is just a being who loves to gamble. They learn that the Blackstar host won passage from Mihajla to the realm of Arvandor, and that he did not desire to aid them in their quest beyond what they won from gambling. As the party views his hordes of treasure, they are overcome with desire for more magical gear and decide to gamble. Fortunately, after many lucky die rolls, they soon find themselves with more treasure than with which they had entered, and more importantly, the information that something something. Impressed by their demeanor, Mihajla decides to arrange a meeting between Blindfest and an efreet, the Shah Abdul-Azim Abassi, at the Shah's hidden retreat on the continent-sized earthmote of Irdoc Morda in the Elemental Chaos. Mihajla believes that the Shah might be able to shed some light as to why souls are being brought to the City of Brass. As a gift for all of the entertainment Blindfest has provided for Mihajla, the djinn presents Blindfest with a ritual scroll for the Plane Shift ritual, already attuned to Irdoc Morda's location. The party head back to the Killer's Killer where they find the Banites who had been crewing the ship disemboweled and exsanguinated, with the message "Don't disappoint me" scrawled in their blood. Lady Sanguine is nowhere to be found. Darrak transcribes and performs the ritual, and the vessel is transported ten miles from the Shah's retreat. Unfortunately, Blindfest find that they are on the underside of the continent. As the heroes make it to their next destination, they quickly have to fly the Killer's Killer through the bottom of Irdoc Morda. At first it seems their flying is on target, however a few miscalculations cause the spelljammer to crash through the earthmote to surface. Although The Killer's Killer takes some damage, it is not destroyed and Blindfest is able to move on ahead. As the adventurers make their way through their surroundings, they were quickly attacked by and earth drake, an avalanche dragon, and an earthquake dragon. Due to the beasts' ability to keep the party immobilized and prone, they gave Blindfest some difficulty, but eventually the heroes were able to strike them down. Followed by Apocalypse Eclipse Session 13 Recording *Part 1 - In which Blindfest explores their deaths and finds really weird shit in Mihajla's tent. Also, GAMBLIN'! *Part 2 - In which Blindfest gets stoned and has a rockin' time in the Elemental Chaos.